The Morning After: Meet the New Idol...
FOX
...same as the old Idol? Slightly changed? American Idol stomped Tyrannosaurus-like back onto the TV schedule last night. A few thoughts:
* This was supposed to be the new, improved Idol, with new judge Kara DioGuardi and a promise that it would focus less on the freakshow of bad singers and attention junkies in the early audition rounds. It looked a lot like the old audition episodes to me—see the crying rocker guy, bikini girl, the dude with the world's lowest voice—with maybe a little less of the overlong wallowing in the excruciatingly talentless. But wringing a few less episodes out of the audition parade and spending more time on the Hollywood round should be an improvement.
* So far I'm liking songwriter DioGuardi, though. No drama, no discernably annoying verbal tics so far—and it's interesting to have a judge who can actually sing examples. Has anyone seen her and Carla Gugino in the same room?
* As for the talent: tattooed Emily Wynne-Hughes, who skipped out on her band to audition, seems to have promise. Likewise Deanna Brown, whose vaguely Amy Winehouse-ish voice doesn't quite match her girl-next-door face. But my cynical money so far is on 17-year-old Cody Sheldon from Detroit (go Motown!), who looks like the fourth Jonas Brother and thus only has to have a voice slightly better than a toad's to go far in this competition. His horror-movie fixation could be a bit out-creeping, but I'm guessing he can get past that. And did I mention his name is Cody? Somebody get that kid a Disney Channel show!
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1
Ugh. It's back. Time for me to ignore it, again.
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Lost Discussion Group, anyone? -
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Are you serious she called bikini girl an itch with a B!! And you think there is no drama from Cara...whatever dude!
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Mrs. Dave was flipping between AI and something else I didn't care about, but I got a similar impression, James... what's so different about what I saw last night and past audition shows? Maybe we only caught the scenes with the bad singers, but neither Mrs. Dave or I cared enough to look into what happens if 2 judges vote for and 2 judges vote against. Depending on what night AI is on regularly and when, we may follow it, though I don't expect to go out of my way for it.
`
@Chad - I watched all the deleted scenes on the S4 DVDs, and it really made me wonder the canonicity of deleted scenes. I mean, we talk about clips posted on ABC.com that got pulled from the show as canon, so wouldn't deleted scenes be covered too? Also, re: the discussion about Rousseau and the Purge and a timeline, when Ben, Locke, and Hurley are going to the Orchid, Ben tells Hurley that the crackers stored there are 15 years old. Ben was technically still Dharma then, but it sure looked like that stash was there for Hostiles. 15 years pre-815 makes the timing of Alex getting stolen a little easier to swallow. -
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One more AI point: bikini girl would have entertained me a LOT more if she were auditioning in Detroit... in February. Phoenix? *shrug*
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I had the first hour on in the background because everything else was scared away. (I had an excellent hour of Scrubs on at 9 though). I usually don't care much about this stuff, but I found myself getting annoyed during the preamble, where for the tenth (or whatever) year, American Idol acts as if its some ultra-inspirational, cultural phenomenon.
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My main thoughts while watching were "I wish there was a liveblog or open comment thread, because this is the kind of show that I would like to be commenting on while I'm watching it." Most of my specific thoughts have left me. . .
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I'm most interested in watching the blind dude, who seemed both talented and cool (and I can't wait to see how he handles group choreography) and the skinny spazzy kid with short dark hair. He was seriously cracking me up. I wasn't crazy about his voice, I thought it was a little strange but interesting. The tattoo chick seemed very talented, and I liked the Sweetest Girl Ever, with brown hair and big curls who had a kinda bluesy tone.
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I was surprised that bikini girl made the cut - it seemed like Randy and Simon both approved her just to put Kara and Paula in the awkward position of reacting. She was so very hot, but I wasn't impressed with much in her voice. And having her bounce up and down twice? Real classy, guys. She seemed to enjoy the objectification, though, so win-win-win. I guess. Sorta.
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Another one that surprised me was the shiny little cowgirl that could - she did make it, right? Correct me if I'm remembering wrong, but I think that she did manage to arm-twist her way to Hollywood. How. Very. Irritating. She. Is.
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I spent most of the episode wincing through the train wrecks, of which there were still plenty. I just hate that these unstable, deluded, heartbroken people are then re-embarrassed in a national forum. I usually skip auditions, just because it bums me out to see all that, but I figured I'd watch to see if there were changes. The sissy rocker dude, who just wanted someone to tell him that he's great, made me so sad (who was the poser rocker from a recent season who kept insisting that he was A Rocker, despite all evidence to the contrary? I wanna say Robbie something), as did the Asberger kid who went catatonic in the hallway. -
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@shara: Yeah, I remember thinking that this was the first time I could remember someone using the old refuse-to-leave-and-pathetically-keep-singing trick and it actually WORKING. So I guess all the more people will do it in future seasons. The judges will have only themselves to blame.
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@dyamond: Yeah, maybe "_no_ drama" was the wrong choice of words, but I didn't have the conspicuous feeling with her that she was playing to the cameras or throwing out canned one-liners to get noticed (like, say, new judge Toby Young on Top Chef last week).
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Should there be a liveblog? -
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@James - if a liveblog is too much trouble, maybe there could just be an open comment thread...
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Hm... if we're home watching Idol and there's an open comment thread, that could increase the entertainment of the show by leaps and bounds.
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Ooen comment thread it is. I'll set one up to post this evening and we can see how it goes. Maybe I'll even join in the comments if I'm not watching time-shifted on Tivo. Unfortunately I guess I'll have to bias it to the Eastern and Central time zones, sorry.
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So now contestants are going in bathing suits . . . will the producers be adding a formal wear competition as well?
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http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/01/lostabctv.html#more
Maureen Ryan has posted an interview with the "Lost Brain Trust" (C & L). Most spoilery stuff has been removed from the interview, although there are a few cool nuggets! Interesting interview.
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You're my hero, shara... it's a good thing my boss isn't here today. I'm not going to be too productive this afternoon
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Stupid East Coast bias. That's okay. I didn't even make it to the bikini girl. If I had skipped the self congratulatory first half hour, I'd have been fine. As it were, I was done at the one hour mark.
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BTW, how cool was it when Ryan Seacrest tried to hi-five the blind dude?
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@james - ahhhh. quite possible. . . The dude did say that he has some small amount of tunnel vision, he could see like part of one piano key at a time. Well, if it had worked, it would have been a Ryan Seacrest is COOL moment, rather than Ryan Seacrest is a TOOL moment.
- poniewozik Loved the season. Mrs Tuned In wd have put u on the main list RT @boredtodeath Thank u for incl us in Time's Top 10. We'll take hon mention. - 4 hours ago
- poniewozik @carr2n Virgin is the best, LAX-JFK - 4 hours ago
- poniewozik Did NPR interview abt multiscreen multitasking. After, automatically reached for iPhone in pocket. Like don draper wd have for cigarettes. - 5 hours ago
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